Donington Park: Plato: Subaru edging nearer to sweet-spot of Levorg

Jason Plato: We're getting from one side of the mountain to the other by only making small adjustments. The closer we get to the top, the more we can see the Levorg is a fine, precise bit of kit.

Double British Touring Car champion Jason Plato is confident that Subaru Team BMR are edging closer to the 'sweet spot' of the Levorg after making further strides at Donington Park.

In terms of points, the 94-time race winner left the second weekend of the 2016 campaign empty handed but gained a further multitude of knowledge as Subaru bid to inch nearer to the sharp end of the grid.

While the Levorg is already proving to be kind on tyre life, Plato believes BMR have now been able to find a remedy, which has alleviated the RWD machines 'overly powerful' front end balance.

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"We've learned a lot about the car and how it's evolved from qualifying to the three races today [Sunday]," Plato told Crash.net. "We're constantly trying different things so we've got a good handle on the race set up and trying to control the change in balance when the tyres start to degrade.

"Our degradation is very good actually and we've now found the understeer switch, which we didn't have before. That's going to be positive for circuits like Thruxton and beyond. The front end was overly powerful but we think we've got a handle on that now."

The 48-year old predicts that once his Subaru outfit finds the sweet spot of Levorg, the real challenge will be in 'maintaining its boiling point' amid various track conditions.

Plato says BMR Subaru's voyage into unlocking the raw potential from their challenger has been helped by the Levorg's adaptability to change.

"We're now finding the little changes are having a big influence on the car. You had to make quite big changes with the Volkswagen and MG to get a reaction. With the Subaru, you only need to make a tickle - it's a tiny change," the Subaru driver explained.

"We're getting from one side of the mountain to the other by only making small adjustments. The closer we get to the top, the more we can see the Levorg is a fine precise little bit of kit.

"The difficulty is that it doesn't take much to lose the sweet spot of the balance. We haven't found the sweet spot yet but we're getting closer. We've got to be very detailed.

"When we get the car right where we want it to be, it won't take very much to take it off the boil. Our challenge this season is to learn how to keep it on the boil all the time."